Taking Up His Father’s Field : Andy Mota Trying to Extend Family Baseball Legacy

AUBURN, N.Y. —  Andy Mota’s childhood was a kid’s dream come true. He spent his summers at Dodger Stadium hobnobbing with the stars of his father’s era and went to just about every Los Angeles home game.

“My dad (Manny) always got to the park early, and me and my brothers went with him,” said Mota, who was the Dodger bat boy for four years.

“I’d be out in the outfield shagging fly balls, and my brothers and I would pitch batting practice to each other. Then the big leaguers came and took their batting practice. We shared a lot of time with them in the clubhouse and talked. It was an unbelievable experience.”

At 22, Andy Mota’s summers haven’t changed much. He still goes to the ballpark every day, shags flies, fields grounders and takes his turn in the batting cage. The difference now is that he’s one of the stars--for the Auburn Astros of the Class-A New York-Penn League--and he plays his home games at rickety old Falcon Park in this town in central New York.

In an era when familiar last names from the past keep popping up on rosters across the minor-league landscape--names like Griffey, Hundley, May, Rivers and Roseboro--Andy Mota is starting to show signs of living up to the legacy his father left in 19 years as a major leaguer.

Mota, who led the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. in batting while with Cal State Fullerton in 1987, finished this season with 90 hits and a .360 average. He scored 51 runs, drove in 43 and stole 30 bases.

That’s a dramatic improvement over last summer, when he batted only .263 and drove in only 14 runs in 70 games for the Astros.

“I’ve had more success than last year, and I attribute that to the fact that I have one more year of experience,” Mota said. “Coming out of college you don’t know what to expect. You’re making an adjustment to playing every day, which you don’t do in college, longer bus rides, different fields, and better pitching.

“You’ve got to work hard for yourself to get better because there’s no one there to force you,” said Mota, a right-handed hitter who at 5-10 and 180 is built along the lines of his father. “As you get more success, like what’s happened to me, you get more confident, the butterflies are gone.”

The butterflies. It’s only natural for the son of a former major league star to feel them.

“I’m sure he has additional pressure,” Astro Manager Frank Cacciatore said. “You try to excel to your father’s proportions. And he’s got a couple of brothers that are playing. So I’m sure there’s a little bit of a rivalry there and a little bit of additional pressure, but he handles it well.”

Manny Mota is the batting instructor and first-base coach for the Dodgers, but he is probably best remembered as one of baseball’s premier pinch-hitters, collecting a major league record 150 pinch-hits. When he retired in 1982, he left with a lifetime batting average of .304.

When Andy Mota, who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, left the PCAA, he departed as a batting champion with an uncertain future.

“I didn’t know whether I was going to get drafted or not because I wasn’t playing defense, I was DHing,” said Mota, who hit .377 in ’87. “I didn’t know if that was going to be a negative or not, so I was surprised to be picked up in the 12th round, to tell you the truth.”

Astro scout Doug Deutsch, who signed Mota, was saw something other scouts apparently overlooked.

“His intelligence was something above everybody I saw,” Deutsch said.

Mota’s first year at Auburn probably didn’t turn out the way he had envisioned, but there was an underlying reason for his ordinary performance.

“He called me (during the season) and said his (right) arm was killing him,” Deutsch said. “I said, ‘Did you see the trainer?’ and he said ‘I can’t do that, I’ll play with the pain.”’

When asked about the injury, Mota downplayed its effect.

“I played with some soreness last season, but I didn’t think it was anything serious,” Mota said. “After the season it was diagnosed as being something pretty bad. I have an unstable shoulder, kind of a loose shoulder.

“At first I was in shock because when I saw Dr. (Frank) Jobe he said I would have to have shoulder reconstruction and lose a whole season and maybe be ready next year.”

Instead, Mota underwent arthroscopic surgery in January and now the arm is sound again.

“We found out after the operation that it wasn’t as bad as we thought,” said Mota, whose brother Jose plays second base at double-A San Antonio of the Texas League.

Mota, who usually bats either third or fourth in the order, has excelled this season despite devoting most of spring training to therapy and playing five positions. Surprisingly, he credits Cacciatore for much of his current success.

Cacciatore disagrees.

“It’s been all his doing, his determination and work, and his ability to listen and be coached,” Cacciatore said.

“I think he’s the (league) MVP. When you’re looking at MVP, you’re not only looking at stats, you’re looking at his contribution to the club. And Andy’s had to come in and play first base, and all of a sudden he’s had to move to third base. We’ve played him at second base when we had an injury and we’ve even played him in the outfield. That’s what tips the scales in my book.

“And he’s a leader, a quiet leader. He doesn’t go around the clubhouse being forceful, it’s not his personality. But he’s definitely intense, and he’s well-respected by his teammates. They look to him, and he accepts that responsibility. He’s just an all-around class guy.”